Founding of European Economic Area

The European Economic Area, or EEA, is an agreement that extends the European Union's single market to three members of the European Free Trade Association: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Negotiated in the early 1990s and signed in 1992, it entered into force at the start of 1994. Under it, goods, services, capital and people can move freely between the EU states and these partners, and the partners adopt much of the EU's internal market legislation without having a vote on it. Switzerland, the fourth EFTA member, stayed out after its voters rejected membership in a 1992 referendum and instead deals with the EU through bilateral agreements. The United Kingdom left the EEA when it left the European Union.

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